Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Timespasses along word that there could be some protesters on the field during today’s Athletics-Rays game at Tropicana Field. It’s apparently related to the Republican National Convention, which will take over the stadium beginning tomorrow.

#Rays players have been informed of possibility of 30-40 protesters running on field to disrupt today's game, like a flash mob

Correct me if I’m wrong here, but isn’t the element of surprise pretty key in a flash mob? Cover is already blown, you guys. Anyway, Topkin notes that extra security is in place to deal with the potential situation and players have been advised to avoid conflict.

I hope the cops are armed to the teeth with everything from tasers to grenade launchers. Civil disobedience in today’s America should be met with a liberal dose of pepper spray and a generous entitlement of whoop ass. OCCUPY JAIL!!!!!

You have to understand Randy. His motives are ugly, but can’t completely subsume his natural sense of humor. His flirtations with neofascism are usually conducted in a playful spirit. Don’t forget, he’s a Borg fan.

Fact is, though I would love to see these same demonstrators crash (if not flash) the convention, I don’t see the point of disrupting a baseball game. Political protest is quintessentially American, but disrupting a baseball game is a criminal act. I have to side with Randy here: if these people are too stupid, not to mention inconsiderate, to tell the difference between a political convention and a baseball game, by all means, whup some ass and play ball.

cur68 - Aug 25, 2012 at 12:21 PM

This is Randy, a Yankee Fan. Thus we have a Sith Lord of The Empire, probably modeled on Vader. Underneath it all there is still some good in him. But, day to day, he’s with the Empire. He is totally serious.

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged - Aug 25, 2012 at 12:40 PM

Political protest is quintessentially American, but disrupting a baseball game is a criminal act

Except nothing was mentioned by randy about disrupting a game, he was just spouting off about civil disobedience in general. If there’s a group protesting outside Tropicana Field, is that disrupting a baseball game? If they hold up signs in the stands, does that disrupt the game?

and btw, I’m a Yanks fan too. Not all of us are knuckle-dragging neanderthals.

Old Gator - Aug 25, 2012 at 1:45 PM

Church: no question. Yankeesfanlen, arguably the most wholehearted Borg fan on the board, is a good pal of mine. I even harbor a few nostalgic cuddles for them and their glory years too. But it’s like a recessive gene: by itself, the borgfan gene ($1B) just occupies deoxyribonucleic shelf space and doesn’t make much difference. In circumstantial combination with other genes – the jingo-gene (†1), for example, or the überselfish gene (ü235, dominant in right wingers) – the borgfan gene yields a complex of objectionable behaviors all too well known to us. By the way, it’s thought to be an engrammatic, imprintable gene, so that the same complex of unpleasant traits could arise in, say, Feeliedelfia too. Lately, it seems to have taken root in Cincinatti, unfortunately, where it appears to be tied to an extra “Y” chromosome.

Old Gator - Aug 25, 2012 at 1:52 PM

Damn, hit “post comment” too soon.

Yeah, and these protesters aren’t talking about sitting outside or in the stands; they’re talking about rushing onto the field and disrupting the game. Much as I sympathize with their ostensible project of protesting the inhumane and fascistic policies of the Republicans, if they go out there on the field and interfere with these splendid professional athletes trying to do their work, which is a dangerous and pointless thing to do anyway, I hope the ballplayers beat the living shit out of them.

cur68 - Aug 25, 2012 at 12:19 PM

It was civil disobedience, popular anger against the rule of law, political disagreement by key figures, and raising public awareness that got your country its independence, secured its future, and made it what it is. Advocacy of draconian police action against protest of unpopular politics is pretty Un-American.

To be fair, in Florida (and most red states) you’re only allowed to protest in specific places at specific times, and at a specific decibel with only a specific amount of people allowed in the “protest zone”.

So you have to announce it, lest some over zealous person just starts shooting at you for violating the law.

The official Occupy the RNC campaign is enlisting every type of obstruction, from peaceful marches, business disruption to window breaking, dumpster burning and worse. They also direct the people who are uncomfortable with these more radical actions to step aside, but to not speak disagreement with the media or cooperate with authorities. This includes actions from Black bloc anarchists.

The occupy protest camps, as small as they were, contained drug addicts, muggers, thieves, rapists (many) child molesters, murderers, and terrorists (arrested and prosecuted). These miscreants are not fighting for American ideals, they are fighting to change America into a European socialist country at first and ultimately into a collectivist communism.

So church, I am serious. Being a self admitted fascist, I’d encourage citizens to go patrol their own neighborhoods and take these policing actions into their own hands.

they are fighting to change America into a European socialist country at first and ultimately into a collectivist communism.

This morning I was awoken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the national weather service of the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the national aeronautics and space administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US department of agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined as safe by the food and drug administration.

At the appropriate time as regulated by the US congress and kept accurate by the national institute of standards and technology and the US naval observatory, I get into my national highway traffic safety administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the environmental protection agency, using legal tender issued by the federal reserve bank. On the way out the door, I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US postal service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal’s inspection, and which as not been plundered of all its valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log on to the internet which was developed by the defense advanced research projects administration and post on freerepublic.com and fox news forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the gov’t can’t do anything right.

About the garbage at occupy camps? Yes, all documented. There were multiple rapes. One in Boston, one in NY, where the girl was bullied into not cooperating with the police. There was a 16 year old raped in Texas I believe. Etc. then you had the Oakland occupier who was getting grief from his parents for spending too much time at the occupy camp, so he killed them and stuffed them into their car. This is in addition to the half dozen dead bodies found at assorted occupy camps across the country. Then you had the occupy folks in Cleveland, lead by Brandon Baxter, who decided they were going to blow up a building and a bridge before they were infiltrated and caught. These are just a few of the dozens of examples of hardcore criminal behavior. I had done some volunteer research for a think tank involved with documenting these cases.

And some people think cucumbers taste better pickled. What does anything you said above have to do with civil disobedience and your reaction to it? Do we lump Gandhi or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr together with those from the Watts Riots, or the riots after the Rodney King verdict merely because they were both forms of “protest?”

Church- to answer your question- standing outside of a baseball stadium, protesting, or seated inside, holding up placards is ok, but it’s not civil disobedience and not what they intend. If its CD, they must break the law and be willing to be arrested for it. (in my original post, that’s what I meant by CD IN TODAY’S AMERICA, they like to take the action but are NOT willing to make the sacrifice for it. This is diametrically opposed to what MLK was doing. His CD was designed to break laws and to fight for change through the courts/legal system). Most likely it will be property damage or disruption of the game. Perhaps 2 or 3 at a time, on the field. Done over and over again???

And you know all of this how? I’m willing to admit that there were many incidents of lawbreaking during some recent protests, that had nothing to do with civil disobedience. However, that doesn’t justify lumping all groups that protest together.

And unfortunately that’s like 6 posts by me in 10 minutes, so this will probably be the last due to this site’s stupid spam filter.

Unfortunately, I think I got ahead of myself with the initial post. Earlier today, I had been reading the ACLU’s 60 page pamphlet dispersed to occupies descending on Tampa. That was tied into “occupy the RNC”. So, when I initially read about the protestors descending upon tropicana field, I immediately tied it to the occupiers without sharing why or my insight with the group. From your perspective the 2 things weren’t connected. To me they are. The miscommunication is mine because I failed to explain why I was connecting these things. I apologize for not being clear, initially. Even though you may disagree with how we process these “protests”, i hope you can at least understand how I got from point A to point B.

Gator- I don’t want to see any players involved, on any level, with these protestors. Their MO is exactly the same as Westboro Baptist Church’s, that is, instigate a confrontation, then sue if they are touched. IMO, the police should have snipers up on the catwalk. As soon as one of their dirty toes hit the carpet, SHOOT!!!!!!!!

You don’t need snipers in the Tropicana Tumulus, They have a morbidly obese predator drone – a kind of mini-Hindenburg – that buzzes around the rafters and occasionally gets stuck in them too. Just arm it with mini-hellfires (any little right wing brat with a set of Estes rocket engines can crank a dozen of those out in an hour) and run it from Langley, like the ones in Afghanistan.

And if one of them happens to take out David Price or Evan Longoria, who’s to say it wasn’t an accident? You?

So what exactly are these fools protesting?? R they mad because the republican convention is in town and those folks have intelligent and differentiating opinions on how the country should be run? Even though they themselves preach having an open mind and accepting everyone and everything in the world? Oh never mind those policies only go for those who think like them so now they r going to protest during America’s pastime. Makes sense!

Just curious, but what’s so intelligent about denying evolution, wanting to teach creationism, thinking raped women can’t get pregnant or that the HPV vaccine can make you mentally retarded? This and much more from your “intelligent” party…